Human security in iraq: organized violence returns to Baghdad

by Wamith Al-Kassab (Iraq)

Five employees of an Iraqi relief organization in Baghdad were killed Monday in an attack by extremists. The gunmen stormed into an office of Mawtini organisation in the chiefly-Sunni district of Adhamiya and opened fire.

The victims included four men and one woman, all were volunteer workers in the organization, the women was a computer engineer, and a prominent women’s rights activist was shot in front of her 5-year-old daughter

Meanwhile a car bomb went off near an Iraqi military patrol close to the office, wounding two soldiers.
The organization is rumored to be linked to Salah al-Mutlak, the prominent secular Sunni lawmaker and his party have been barred from participating in the upcoming parliamentary election because of ties to the previous regime.

The organization’s staff included a candidate for Parliament, Wurud al-Qaisi, who was in the building but escaped unharmed. Ms. Qaisi is running with a list of female candidates as part of a secular, cross-sectarian alliance.

The observers link the attack to a surge in assassinations in Baghdad believed to be perpetrated by the notorious “death squads” which had terrorized the Iraqi capital nearly two years ago.

Four people, including a colonel in the Iraqi army, were killed in three separate attacks by armed militants, security forces confirmed on Thursday,the colonel was killed by militant gunfire in the Al-Kasr area of Mosul, around 400 kilometers north of Baghdad on Wednesday night, Four gunmen robbed a jewelry store in the Binoog district of northern Baghdad, killing the owner and another man ,most of the attacks on jewelry stores target Christians and sabia minorities merchants
Iraqi Government workers in Baghdad say the ever-tighter security precautions around their offices are failing to allay fears of further deadly attacks ahead of March elections.
The government has increased roadblocks and security checks in the roughly 15-kilometre central Baghdad zone where most ministries and state offices are located.

But civil servants say the heightened security has done little to reassure them.
Many Iraqi universities are witnessing in the last few months security deterioration as they turn into arenas for political struggles as election date became near which effects the quality of education. Universities, particularly those located in Baghdad province, have become a target of violence, and the security bodies are unable to protect the safety of the students.
Recently, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki has ordered the closure of the Mustansariyah University in Baghdad as punishment for the beating up of a professor by students on campus.
Baghdad university is surrounded by large wall with tight security measures as the dean of the university told the students that they are targeted by terror and read to them a threat letter to close the university doors or else.
On the 12 of jan 2010 Iraqi security forces blocked large parts of Baghdad on morning and conducted search operations in some neighborhoods, causing large-scale lockdowns in the capital, The source could not tell the reason behind such sudden and wide-ranging operations, but said they are possibly based on information on bomb attacks in the capital ,people could not go to work or schools ,many heard rumors of failed coup in Baghdad green zone
After an explosions last week in najaf city the city council accused the sons of bath members of organizing the attacks ,the council give 24 hours to all bath families to leave the city ,they later said they can leave in few weeks

The future security in Iraq depends on the election next month ,many people fear a wide spread cleansing in Iraq as one known organization related to media activities in London and with good ties to sectarian powers in Iraq published last week a list of more than 200 names of academics ,journalists and scientist and accuse them of being old believers in Bath and spread articles in the net to attack the Iraqi government and accuses them of being linked to the Iraqis in Syria who are blamed for Baghdad 2009 bloody attacks, bath relation has became a new accusation to remove more than 500 candidate to elections ,making many Iraqi fear that a bath cleansing in the future
Future is not clear and media covers the facts in Iraq ,what will happen is unknown but mostly a strong step in Iraq future for better or worse
References:

1-eart times web site
2-aswat Iraq agency
3-al-zaaman Iraqi newspaper
4-rutiers agency
5-al-baghdadia tv